News

WASHINGTON/BRASILIA (Reuters) – The United States and Brazil are preparing to sign a new agreement to bolster defense cooperation, the first accord of its kind between the hemisphere’s two top economies in more than 30 years, officials said yesterday.

(Trinidad Guardian) – Allen Stanford is in the news yet again, because his knighthood was reversed by the Antiguan authorities.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuba’s sugar ministry will  close in the coming months and be replaced by a state-run  corporation, business sources said, in the most important  reorganization of the once-thriving industry since it was  drastically downsized in 2002.

Police in ‘B’ Division made 150 underprivileged children in Berbice happy when they distributed kites to them on Sunday, in time for Easter.

-deny offering bribe Four persons, allegedly found with 111 grams of cannabis at Bartica, were yesterday charged with trafficking in narcotics.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Rescuers in Rio de  Janeiro dug desperately in mud and debris yesterday to try  to find dozens of people missing from floods and landslides  that killed at least 133 people in Brazil’s second-biggest  city.

OAS to visit Haiti The Organisation of American States (OAS) is sending a high-level mission to Haiti this week.

-says he was real victim A man who was found guilty of resisting arrest and assaulting two police officers staged a protest against the verdict last week, saying he was a victim of police brutality.

-attackers still to be identified Terrence Parahoo spends most of his time in bed or hobbling around on crutches.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The 2010 Atlantic hurricane  season will produce an above-average eight hurricanes, four of  them major, posing a heightened threat to the US coastline,  the Colorado State University hurricane forecasting team  predicted yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) – In a statement to the Senate on Tuesday, Attorney General John Jeremie announced that there would be a “reconstituted” UDeCOTT board-save for its recently appointed chairman Jearlean John- and thanked the outgoing members for their services.

– for Sardine Hill property Mariwa Mining Company Inc, in which Presidential Advisor Odinga Lumumba has interest, moved one step closer to sealing a mining deal with a Canadian mining exploration company following the passing of a definitive agreement between the two parties.

One month after a well-known Guyanese businessman was found not guilty of murder in a British Virgin Island (BVI) court he is now facing further legal troubles as the country’s Governor David Pearey has ordered that he be kicked out after he was convicted of “assisting fugitives and driving a motor vehicle with prohibited tint on the window”, according to the BVI Beacon.

Magistrate Fazil Azeez yesterday fined the Superintendent of Police (ASP) who was involved in the accident on Thomas Road, Thomas Lands last Saturday $15,000 after he entered a guilty plea to a drunken driving charge.

– lack of funds affects drainage works In an attempt to bridge the gap between its proposed expenditure and income for this year’s budget, the Georgetown Municipality will be moving to collect taxes from over 143 properties within the city, which owe the council over $1.5 billion in taxes since 1998.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is still awaiting the release of funds from the Finance Ministry to pay workers employed during the recent claims and objections exercise.

Traffic Chief Neil Semple said yesterday that the owner of the Diamond New Housing Scheme taxi, which struck down and killed Ramona Harris was driving the vehicle on Friday night and is in custody.

Thirty-six persons have been placed before the courts after they were arrested in `B’ Division (Berbice) over the Easter weekend for driving under the influence of alcohol.

– awaiting govt signature since March 2 A US$200,000 grant from the World Bank to support information sharing activities on forest preservation strategies has been available for more than a month but government has not moved to sign the document.

Mere hours after she went on trial in a New York court, a Guyanese woman, who was caught with five kilogrammes of cocaine in her Gotcha suitcases late last year, was found guilty by a jury that deliberated for a short period.